General Dynamics NASSCO faces at least a one year delay in getting hundreds of millions of dollars to build the third Mobile Landing Platform (MLP) ship that the San Diego company is scheduled to construct for the Navy.

The U.S. Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee was expected to approve the money for fiscal 2012, but decided to push it back to 2013 or later to help shave $26 billion in defense spending. The committee greatly influences funding decisions made by the full Congress.

The funding change comes three months after NASSCO was awarded $60 million to begin buying materials and parts for the ship, which will serve as a transfer station for the delivery of cargo and equipment.

There's a possibility that the decision will affect employment at NASSCO, which was preparing to lay off hundreds of its 3,600 workers until May, when the Pentagon awarded the shipyard $744 million to build the first two MLP vessels. The shipyard had previously been given $115 million for the design and early development of MLP, which has been nicknamed the "floating pier."

NASSCO, the last major shipbuilder on the West Coast, has already started construction on the first MLP ship, which will be 765 feet long, making it among the biggest vessels the shipyard has ever produced. And design work on the second vessel is underway at NASSCO's Mission Valley engineering center.

The MLP program is important to NASSCO's financial health. The company is nearly finished building 14 Lewis-and-Clark-class dry cargo ships for the Navy. The MLP is meant to help continue NASSCO's role as a major shipbuilder. The company also needs MLP because it has struggled to obtain new contracts to build ships for the commercial sector.